Innovate Finance Lobbying Policy
A key part of our role at Innovate Finance is to engage government, regulators and policy makers to deepen their understanding of FinTech, advocate policies and approaches to regulation that will maintain the UK’s position as a global FinTech hub and identify where and how FinTech can help achieve wider economic, social and environmental outcomes. We therefore lobby on behalf of our members, giving UK FinTech a collective voice.
In addition to legal requirements, our approach is guided by the principles of acting for the interest of the ecosystem, political impartiality, and transparency.
We follow the CIPR professional standards in lobbying, which specify that lobbying should be carried out in a way that:
- does not break the law or contravene any relevant regulations
- does not seek to come before the relationship between a legislator and their electors
- is in accordance with an enforceable code of professional conduct
- follows the exercise of reasonable professional judgement
Our approach is guided by the following principles:
Acting for the interests of the ecosystem:
When engaging government we aim to reflect the UK FinTech ecosystem and specifically the needs of startups, scaleups and high growth enterprises. We do not lobby government on behalf of individual members.
Political impartiality:
Innovate Finance is politically neutral. We work with the government of the day and with other political parties as appropriate.
We do not give donations to political parties or to individual politicians.
Transparency
We publish our policy positions and use various channels, such as our regular CEO update or Policy Update, to highlight key points of our discussions with government and policy makers.
All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on FinTech.
Innovate Finance provides the secretariat to the APPG on FinTech (APPG FinTech), supporting the organisation of events, meetings and publications. The value of this in-kind support is published in the UK Parliament register of All-Party Parliamentary Groups ( Registers of All-Party Parliamentary Groups published in 2021 – UK Parliament) The APPG seeks to raise awareness of FinTech and to promote a regulatory framework that encourages a growing, inclusive and competitive Fintech industry, and to investigate the application of financial technology.
Legal Requirements
We adhere to legal requirements on lobbying, including the UK Transparency of Lobbying, Non Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 (The Act) and The Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016. As a trade association acting on behalf of our collective membership, we do not come within the scope of the definition of ‘consultant lobbyist’ for the purposes of the UK Registration of Consultant Lobbyists.
1 For the purposes of this statement, ‘government’ includes national and devolved administrations, Parliament and national assemblies.
